It's Showtime: On the Workplace Geographies of Display in a Restaurant in Southeast England

Abstract

The geographies of one particular restaurant workplace in the southeast of England are considered. It is argued that such workplace geographies—broadly of surveillance, display, and location—help to constitute the character of an employment. Here, this is demonstrated through an examination of the performative geographies of display in waiting work in Smoky Joe's restaurant. This examination is then used in two ways: both to draw out some implications of the interpersonal nature of this particular job; and to establish some broader analytical dimensions—sociospatial relations of consumption—to aid the understanding of how and why other jobs may be similar or different.